3. BiodataDilbar Jan Arman Shinwari was born in Jaji Maidan District, Khost province, the former governor of Zabul, who belongs to the Pashtun ethnic group and studied at the Afghan Institute of Technology in Kabul during the 1970s. Later, he completed his studies as an electrical technician in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar with the help of US instructors. Delbar Jan Arman is a former member of the Hizb-i Islami of Gulbadin Hikmatyar who fought the Soviets, and whose four-year tenure as governor of Zabul province in the Pashtun south was controversial because of charges of corruption and repression of women.

He had been transferred to Badghis in the north. No matter whom you ask, everybody talks about him in the same way. The Afghan members of parliament who came from Zabul and the local journalists spoke very badly of the former governor of Zabul. There are many examples. "Corruption has reached levels never seen before," an Afghan reporter said in a telephone conversation. He also said that various NGOs had tried last winter to deliver food and blankets to poor families living in the province. Later, they realized that a significant part of that aid ended up in the hands of government officials working for the governor's office.

However, the straw that broke the camel's back was the governor's decision to destroy 1,000 shops located by the road linking Kabul and Kandahar, as it passes through Zabul, in order to widen the road and build a park. The demolitions were carried out without any compensation and the storekeepers made complaints to Kabul. They demonstrated in front of the parliament and perhaps that led Afghan President Hamid Karzai to appoint him to another position.

However, Arman has powerful backing: the US troops of the Coalition Force that are carrying out the so-called Operation Enduring Freedom and have nothing to do with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), to which the Spanish troops belong. Arman's relationship with the Americans has almost been a honeymoon and, according to local reporters, bombings of civilians and arrests of tribal leaders by the US troops multiplied during his rule as governor. Arman speaks perfect English, is a good speaker, and intends to act like an open-minded man.

He is married and has five daughters and three sons.

Arman speaks perfect English

Background:In Kabul, police and NDS, then controlled by Shura-ye Nizar arrested scores of members of their old rivals Hezb-e Islami. Wahidullah Sabawun (now one of the president’s advisors on tribal affairs and leader of the legal, registered party) was detained, as were Juma Khan Hamdard and Delbar Jan Arman (now governors of Paktia and Kunar, respectively) and the late Bashir Baghlani (who went on to become governor of Farah). A defence ministry official accused the four men of having been sent by Hekmatyar to sabotage the new government, but it was clear this was just a blatant attempt to settle old scores. The Hezb-e Islami cadres got out fairly swiftly after media reporting and the party slowly managed to rehabilitate itself and gradually found its place in the new administration, eventually also making its way into parliament.